Canola originated in Canada, developed by plant breeders in Saskatchewan and Manitoba during the 1960s and 1970s. It is not a naturally occurring plant but a selectively bred version of rapeseed, engineered to remove compounds that made traditional rapeseed oil unsuitable for human consumption. The name itself is an abbreviation of “Canadian oil, low acid.”
Rapeseed: The Ancient Parent Plant
Canola’s parent species is Brassica napus, a member of the same plant family as cabbage, broccoli, and mustard. Rapeseed has been cultivated for centuries across Europe and Asia, primarily as a source of industrial lubricant and lamp oil. By the mid-1950s, Western countries had begun recognizing rapeseed oil as a potential edible oil, but there was a significant problem: it contained high levels of erucic acid, a fatty acid that raised serious health concerns in animal studies.
Rats fed erucic acid developed fatty deposits in their heart muscle cells. In long-term experiments, it caused scarring (fibrosis) of heart tissue and reduced the heart’s ability to produce energy at the cellular level. Rapeseed oil also had a growth-retarding effect in animals and lowered their tolerance to cold stress. These findings made it clear that traditional rapeseed oil needed to change dramatically before it could be safely marketed as cooking oil.
The Canadian Breeding Breakthrough
Throughout the 1960s, Canadian researchers at the Universities of Manitoba and Saskatchewan set out to breed rapeseed varieties with two key improvements: lower erucic acid in the oil and lower glucosinolates (bitter, potentially harmful compounds) in the leftover seed meal fed to livestock. This dual goal became known as the “double low” or “double zero” approach.
The first low-erucic acid cultivar, called “Oro,” was released in 1968. It solved half the problem. But the real milestone came in 1974, when the University of Manitoba released a variety called “Tower,” the first cultivar to hit both targets. Tower contained less than 2% erucic acid in its oil and dramatically reduced glucosinolate levels in the meal. A second double-low variety, “Candle,” followed in 1977. Together, these releases marked the moment canola became a distinct crop, separate from traditional rapeseed in both composition and name.
How Canola Got Its Name
The word “canola” was coined to distance the new crop from the reputation of rapeseed oil and its associated health concerns. It stands for “Canadian oil, low acid,” a nod to both the country that created it and the breeding achievement that defined it. The rebranding was deliberate: marketing a cooking oil under the name “rapeseed” was a tough sell to consumers, and the new varieties were genuinely a different product.
Today, canola has a strict legal definition in both Canada and the United States. Under U.S. federal regulations, canola must come from seeds of the genus Brassica, contain less than 2% erucic acid in its fatty acid profile, and have fewer than 30 micromoles of glucosinolates per gram of oil-free meal. If the oil doesn’t meet those thresholds, it can’t be labeled canola.
From Prairie Crop to Global Commodity
What started on Canadian research farms is now one of the world’s most widely produced vegetable oils. The European Union leads global production at roughly 10.3 million metric tons of rapeseed/canola oil per year, accounting for 29% of the world supply. China follows at 7.7 million metric tons (22%), and Canada, the crop’s birthplace, produces about 5.1 million metric tons (14%). India, Russia, Japan, and the United States round out the major producers.
Canada’s prairie provinces remain the heart of canola farming in North America. The crop thrives in the cool, relatively short growing seasons of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, the same regions where it was first developed. For Canadian agriculture, canola has been transformative: it turned a niche industrial oilseed into one of the country’s most valuable exports.
Why It Matters That Canola Was Bred, Not Engineered
A common misconception is that canola was created through genetic engineering. The original canola varieties were developed entirely through conventional selective breeding, the same cross-pollination and selection techniques humans have used on crops for thousands of years. Breeders identified individual rapeseed plants that naturally carried lower levels of erucic acid and glucosinolates, then crossed those plants over multiple generations until the traits were stable. Genetically modified canola varieties do exist today and are widely planted, but the crop itself predates commercial genetic modification by about two decades.